looking at Anna.

Nothing was more evident. His pockets were taxed to their full capacity
and those who gathered around the table that morning wished that the
"luck of God" would spread a little.

"Th' feeries must haave been t' see ye," Jamie said, eyeing his pockets.

"Aye, gey sauncy feeries, too!"

"Did ye see aany, Hughie?" Anna asked.

"No, but I had a wondtherful dhrame." The announcement was a
disappointment to us. We had dreams of our own and to have right at our
fireside the one man in all the world who _saw_ things and get merely a
dream from him was, to say the least, discouraging.

"I thocht I heer'd th' rat, tap; rat, tap, ov th' Lepracaun--th' feerie
shoemaker.

"'Is that th' Lepracaun?' says I. 'If it is I want m' three wishes.'
'Get thim out,' says he, 'fur I'm gey busy th' night.'

"'Soun' slape th' night an' safe journey th' morra,' says I.

"'Get yer third out or I'm gone,' says he.

"I scratched m' head an' swithered, but divil a third cud I think ov.
Jist as he was goin', 'Oh,' says I, 'I want a pig fur this sty!'

"'Ye'll git him!' says he, an' off he wint."

Here was something, after all, that gave us more excitement than a
Banshee story. We had a sty. We had hoped for years for a pig. We had
been forced often to use some of the sty for fuel, but in good times
Jamie had always replaced the boards. This was a real vision and we were
satisfied. Jamie's faith in Hughie soared high at the time, but a few
months later it fell to zero. Anna with a twinkle in her eye would
remind us of Hughie's prophecy. One day he wiped the vision off the
slate.

"T' h--l wi' Hughie!" he said. "Some night he'll come back an' slape
there, thin we'll haave a pig in th' sty shure!"

As he left our house that morning he was greeted in a most unusual
manner by a score of people who crowded the entry. Men and women
gathered around him. They inspected the wounds. They gave their blessing
in as many varieties as there were people present. The new attitude
toward the beggar baffled us. Generally he was considered a good deal of
a nuisance and something of a fraud, but that morning he was looked upon
as a saint--as one inspired, as one capable of bestowing benedictions on
the young and giving "luck" to the old. Out of their penury and want
they brought gifts of food, tobacco, cloth for patches and needles and
thread. He was overwhelmed and over-burdened, and as his mission of
gathering food for a few weeks was a